cadet blogs

Well, it is official now – exactly one week until I get to go home for almost a whole month of winter break! There is something about the holiday season that just makes everyone so much cheerier. Personally, my favorite parts are Christmas lights, family, eggnog, and buying people presents that make them smile. Since the Corps of Cadets are authorized to decorate their rooms for holidays, my roommate and I went all out decorating this past weekend. In my opinion, the main attraction to our room is a purple Christmas tree with a pink sequin tree skirt, pink garland, and a pink star at the top.

However, the downside to all of this holiday cheer is finals. I have a Calculus, Chemistry, History, and Macroeconomics final on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday respectively. I believe the last time I had to take four finals in one semester was maybe junior year. I guess that’s just the difference between high school and college. While this semester proved to me that college academics can be very challenging, I also learned that with a little perseverance, I can handle anything thrown my way. I am very excited to continue my career at the United States Coast Guard Academy.

I am writing my December entry pretty early (it’s December 4th as I am writing this), but I wanted to make sure I get an entry in before I go on winter leave. I’m beginning to find out that the month of December here at the Academy is pretty great. We come back right after Thanksgiving break to only a week left of classes, and then its study/ conferences week! We don’t have formations or any of the typical military algorithms that make up our usual day; rather, we get to study as much as we need for our upcoming finals. I feel I am ready for finals. The teachers here at the Academy do a pretty good job of preparing you for exams whether it is through extra study sessions they make available at night or through review packets. And what’s best about finals is that once you are done with your last final (LMO or “last military obligation”), you get to go home for winter leave! I’m particularly excited for this since it will give me just short of a month of down time to rest up, have some fun, and get ready to take on my final semester as a 4/c (woohoo!) Not to mention that I get the (temporary) privileges of Facebook and YouTube back over leave. I also get to see my sister for the first time since I left for Swab Summer, which was about 6 months ago. So many good things to look forward to…except I have to get through my four finals first!

Anyway, this past weekend we had the winter formal which was pretty fun. It was fancy ̶̶̶̶ us kaydets had to wear DDBs (Dinner Dress Blues) and look all sophisticated like. Also coming up is the Lessons and Carols service, which is a big Christmas event the Academy holds each year in the chapel. I will be singing Christmas songs with the Glee club – so much Christmas morale! My roommates and I went all out for decorating our room with some Christmas cheer. Holidays around Chase Hall get pretty interesting since most of us like to decorate our rooms. It’s just one of those small things that make us happy and keep our morale up. And an added bonus for 4/c, we get to have “morale clocks,” so instead of saying boring indoc like what’s for lunch and the movies playing at the local movie theater, we get to sing Christmas songs, which is really fun! I know…it’s the little things in life, right? Well, I guess that’s all I really have to say for now! I’ll write y’all on the other side of winter leave! :) As always, feel free to email me. Happy Holidays everyone and a happy and healthy New Year!